Ray Charles

Boogie-woogie pounded out by Wylie Pitman on an old upright at the Red Wing Cafe hooked a three-year-old, who soon had lessons from the man himself. Blind by seven, he studied Bach and Chopin at a school in St Augustine, reading scores in Braille, then sharpened his technique copying pianists at a Jacksonville union hall.

Seattle beckoned in 1948, and there his band cut 'Confession Blues', a first national hit. At Atlantic, 'I've Got a Woman' fused gospel fervour with jazz, while 'What'd I Say', worked up in clubs, added Latin rhythms; some radio stations banned it for its suggestive edge.

ABC then made him among the earliest Black musicians granted artistic control by a mainstream label. Reshaping other writers' songs, he lifted 'Georgia on My Mind' into an American classic, and Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music brought that tradition together with R&B and pop.